Anti-diesel lobby should be challenged: BMW chief

I expected fighting talk from BMW on diesel - and I got it. Head of diesel development Fritz Steinparzer claims many cities have never had such clean air and it's time the myth of 'pollution' from diesel NOx was challenged.

I expected fighting talk from BMW on diesel - and I got it. Head of diesel development Fritz Steinparzer claims many cities have never had such clean air and it's time the myth of 'pollution' from diesel NOx was challenged.

He says the media in particular has given lobby groups and NGOs an easy ride by not challenging their research, their figures or their claims.

He says current Euro6 diesels, with their NOx absorbing technology, are among the cleanest around.

He believes much of the perceived anti-diesel campaigns kicked into life with the Volkswagen scandal. For the record: "Our company (BMW) did not manipulate (emissions)." The VW saga was a mood changer, he says.

And so he returns to the fightback. He says details of their engines and how they keep them clean are known in detail. And yet carmakers are quizzed intensely about their emissions.

"(But) no one asks the NGOs where they got their figures, their research," he argues.

By raising this question he suggests much of the data on which the anti-diesel lobby relies is out of date and not rigorously assessed.

He is confident BMW diesels will be well capable of meeting future regulatory limits.

"We will phase in improvements. We have the ability to (meet) regulations. We have very low levels of NOx," he says.

And beyond Euro6? Euro7 is a great unknown right now. Who knows what will have changed by then.